How to segment efficiently

Putting subscribers into categories is essential to have an efficient email marketing campaign. This way you make sure that the right information gets to the right people. The importance of segmentation is often underestimated and the lack of segmentation or a wrong segmentation can ruin your campaign.

In email marketing we hear often about one-to-one communication, about putting the accent on the client’s needs to make him feel unique and treated according to his interests and preferences. This is actually the ultimate purpose of segmentation: making every subscriber to feel unique. Because talking to every single client is not possible, you need to find the most relevant message.

Examples of lists to classify your subscribers

The segmentation can be made using several criteria according to the information you know about your clients: demographic data, the time he’s been a subscriber, preferences, status (buyer/prospect), value of the products he bought, frequency of purchase, products purchased. Gathering all these data is a long-term activity, the more you know the better.

Below are some categories to keep into account when you segment:
• Inactive clients – for this category you can make a special offer to make them return.
• Previous purchasing – this will tell you in what products are they interested in to make better offers.
• Interested in certain subjects/products – different subjects concern different targets. You can segment according to this factor using their previously expressed preferences or you can ask them.
• New clients – for this category you need to have a loyalty program. For example, you can send a “thank you” note to the ones that bought for the first time.
• Prospects – using the data you know about them you can create offers that will convince them to buy.

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